Share via

The teenage ballboy who was kicked by a Chelsea footballer when he failed to
let go of the ball has gone into hiding after it emerged that he wrote on
Twitter of his intention to waste time during the game.

Charlie Morgan, 17, the son of a Swansea City FC director and heir to a £43
million fortune, is accused of holding on to the ball on purpose to slow
down Wednesday’s match, preventing Chelsea from scoring any goals against
the victorious Welsh side. He was kicked by the Chelsea midfielder Eden
Hazard while on the ground, clutching the ball.

If the home team is losing, they retrieve the ball a little quicker — and vice versa.

Andy Carroll, the West Ham and England striker, describes a goal he set up when he was a 12-year-old ballboy for Newcastle United. He said: "There was a throw-in. I gave the ball back really quickly and Duncan Ferguson scored from the cross. It was his goal, my assist."

José Mourinho, the Real Madrid manager, has accused Barcelona’s ballboys of "disappearing" when the home side was winning. Such tactics, he spat, were usually deployed by "small clubs" clinging to a lead.

In Brazil, ballboys have even been at the centre of controversies for scoring and stopping goals. All that power, all that responsibility: ballboying really is a man’s game.